I started this project by selecting a rectangular piece of Texas Limestone. This stone is hard within the family of limestones, which are generally soft stones. This particular stone has no "holes" or shell gaps. Pretty solid. For those of you new to stone carving, Limestone is made up of the exoskeletans of sea creatures large and small. Everything from coral, mollusks, etc. It is calcium-based so it is not toxic to breath in, but you would still want to use a breathing mask while grinding. While calcium is used by the body, filling your lungs with the stuff would not feel very good.
I started by doing a side free-hand drawing of my interpretation of this Gargouille (French for Gargoyle, well sort of) - note technical grotesque history another time. As you can see from this picture, free-handing the carving is only intended to help you understand where major cuts are to be. You will draw, redraw, and redraw some more many times over the course of the process of carving.It's important to create Longitudinal lines on either three or four sides of the piece. These are east-west lines that help you to be consistent on removing bulk material without disturbing the horizontal lines of the work.
NOTE: Part II coming tomorrow. There should be 10-15 parts to this process, stay tuned!
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